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From Whence They CameCaron Barton AllenReviewed by Kathy Hare

In 1984 Caron Barton Allen made a promise to her great-grandfather,
John Burdette. “Promise me you gone tell da ones to come. Long as
we keep tellin’ it, we keep it alive. Dey gotta know who dey are,” he
implored. He passed his family’s rich oral history on to three
generations. Now it was Allen’s turn to make sure the legacy of Eular
Beady, a slave on a Virginia Plantation in 1857, would be permanently
laced into the moral fabric of Allen’s descendents. “From Whence They
Came” fulfilled Allen’s promise and accomplished a lot more.

“It’s family that sustains us through all of life’s trials and
tribulations,” Allen said. Eular’s story teaches the importance of
loving each child, “regardless of the circumstances of their
conception.” But I found that “From Whence They Came,” also gives
readers an honest view of a shameful part of American history that
didn’t end with the Civil War. Its strong central message, combined with
the impact racial discrimination had on one particular African-American
family, makes this book more than a genealogy record. It allows readers
to stand in another family’s shoes and view history from their
perspective.

Allen, who spent her childhood in Georgia, now resides in Falcon with
her husband Henry. She spent the last 28 years in law enforcement and
holds a Master’s Degree in Criminal Justice from The University of
Colorado at Colorado Springs. She is currently involved in numerous
programs designed to help youths develop productive lifestyles. And she
taught courses at UCCS that examined “the effects of race and class at
every level within the criminal justice system.”

The genealogy begins when Eular is about 20 years old. She is the
property of Master Beady, owner of a tobacco plantation in southwestern
Virginia. She is pregnant with her third child. Her first two children
were fathered by Caesar, a slave whose offspring “fetched top dollar on
the auction block.” When the children were about two years old, they
were taken from their mother and sold to a plantation owner in Georgia.
But Eular’s third child was not Caesar’s; this pregnancy was the result
of being repeatedly raped by Master Beady.

Using the oral history handed down to her, Allen records the
emotional state of Eular during the pregnancy and birth of her third
child, Jane. It’s not difficult to imagine Eular’s fear. How will the
Mistress Beady react to the birth of her husband’s illegitimate child?
Will the master treat this infant differently than any other slave?
And, most importantly, would this child be ripped from Eular’s arms too?

After emancipation, most of Beady’s slaves head north in search of a
better life. But Eular takes her mixed-race child and walks south to
Newnan, Georgia, in search of the two daughters taken from her years
before. Many people tell her she is on a “fool’s mission.” She only has
Beady’s word for her children’s whereabouts. He may be lying or the
children may have been resold to other plantation owners over the years.

It’s difficult to imagine the hardships of such a journey. Try
walking from Virginia to Georgia today even with all the modern
conveniences along the way. Now put yourself in 1865. The south is in
chaos, lawlessness is rampant, and food supplies are limited. But with
the help of strangers, both black and white, Eular and Jane reached
Newnan.

Eular’s search would continue for the rest of her life. While doing
so, she manages to make a decent living by taking in laundry, earning
enough money to send Jane to one of the first “colored” schools to open
in Georgia. Unfortunately, she never finds her other daughters. But her
journey established a lasting legacy; the love she displayed for her
children and grandchildren helped sustain her descendents for
generations. Allen said, “Whenever I’m struggling with a problem, I
think about what Eular went through, and my difficulties look trivial.”

Allen works her way through each generation. When Alexander Burdette
married Jane in 1882, she was a widow with six children. It’s not clear
how she came to own 12 acres and a house, but Burdette and Jane went on
to have six more children, raising the entire dozen on food produced on
their farm. Recording personal family experiences in their historical
context, Allen retells the story of her maternal lineage right up to the
present. It’s a story of courage, a story of people battling for
acceptance. But these are not fictional characters, like all humans they
make good and bad choices.

I have to admit, that like many other white Americans, I’ve wondered
why after 146 years so many African-Americans still seem to be fixated
on the slavery issue. Allen’s frank discussion in both the
prologue and introduction addresses why she believes slavery must never
be forgotten. That allowed me to start viewing history through someone
else’s perspective. We don’t ask Native Americans or any other
nationality to forget their past. Yet we expect a group of people whose
ancestors were forced to live here to get over it and move on. Allen
advises African-Americans: “Do not be angry or bitter, but do not
forget: for those who forget their past are destined to relive it.” But
she also admonishes that slavery should never be used as an excuse to be
“unproductive, unsuccessful human beings, living lives of mediocrity.”

Allen’s writing style is free-flowing and enjoyable to read. In the
second half of “From Whence They Came,” she gives examples of how “Jim
Crow” laws affected family members, and touches on the problem of
teenage pregnancies while recounting the circumstances of her own birth
and that of her children. I found the switch between Eular’s story and
Allen’s more recent genealogy a little rough at first. But the family
photographs in the middle of the book helped the transition by allowing
readers to put names and faces together. By the end of the book I wanted
to know more about Caron Barton Allen herself, because she too has made
an epic journey.

But in a phone interview, Allen said, “I didn’t want this book to be
about me, I wanted it be about Eular’s message.” Fair enough. “From
Whence They Came,” is a promise completed, with a message all should
heed.